Anita Klein RE

Australian born painter and printmaker Anita Klein now lives and works in London and has exhibited her prints and large oil paintings extensively in the UK, Australia and California.

Trained at the Chelsea School of Art and the SladeS chool of Fine Art, Anita is a fellow and Past President of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. Her work has been shown at the Royal Academy and the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and is held in many private and public collections including The Arts Council of Great Britain.

Her hand-made etchings, dry-points, aquatints, screen-prints and lithographs depict the various activities and relationships of her family members. These depictions are often gently humorous. Through her beautiful and confident use of line and space she creates images and memories which are universally understood.

Anita’s technique of drypoint is a method of producing an intaglio print by simply scoring a plate (usually metal) with a steel point. The tool displaces rather than removes the metal raising a ridge alongside each furrow. The ridge (called a burr) retains ink when the plate is wiped and prints a characteristically soft, velvety line.

Anita’s work is a humorous visual diary celebrating the small domestic moments we all share; having breakfast with her daughters, shaving her legs while husband ‘Nige’ does his exercises and many more. These moments are encapsulated with the soft blackness of the drypoint line, and while irrelevant details are ignored, others like Nige’s hairy legs, or the television remote control are lovingly described.

Anita says that “..these everyday events are what she would miss most if it was all taken away. While family photo albums record our lives as one long round of birthdays and holidays, the very moments we should most value are almost always ignored and forgotten.”

She has received numerous awards and commissions including the Joseph Webb Award, Royal Society of Painter Printmakers (1984), the John Purcell Award, Bankside Open (1991) and the John Purcell Award, National Print Exhibition, National Gallery (1995).